Listen attentively, I beg you, for the question under consideration is not small. Since yesterday you listened attentively, I do not doubt that today you have gathered with even greater attention.
It is no simple question why John says in this Epistle, “Whoever is born of God does not sin,” while earlier in the same Epistle he said: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 Jn 1:8).
What is a man to do when these two sayings from the same Epistle press him from both sides?
If he confesses himself a sinner, he fears that it may be said to him, “Then you are not born of God,” because it is written, “Whoever is born of God does not sin.”
But if he calls himself righteous and says that he has no sin, he is struck from the other side by the same Epistle: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
Thus the man, placed in the middle, does not find what to say, or how to confess and declare himself.
To declare that he is without sin is dangerous. And not only dangerous, but false. “We deceive ourselves,” John says, “and the truth is not in us, if we say that we have no sin.”
But if there truly were no sin, so that you could say this, then you would speak the truth. You would not need to fear that even a trace of iniquity would be upon you when you uttered the truth.
Yet this is precisely why you act wrongly when you say this: you speak a lie. “The truth,” John says, “is not in us, if we say that we have no sin.”
He did not say, “that we had no sin,” so that these sins could be referred to one's former life. For a man could have had sin, but from the time he was born of God, sin ceased to be in him.
If this were the matter, no question would press us. Then we would say, “We were sinners, but now we have received justification. We had sin, but now we do not.”
But John did not say this. What then? “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
A little later, however, he said the opposite: “Whoever is born of God does not sin.” Was John himself not born of God?
If John was not born of God, then of whom have you heard that he reclined on the Lord's breast? Will anyone dare to promise himself rebirth, if the one deemed worthy to recline on the Lord's breast was not worthy of it?
Did the Lord, who loved him more than the others, not give birth from the Spirit to him alone?
Now attend to these words. I am still speaking of our difficulties. May God, in response to your attention, which is like prayer for us and for you, widen our path and show the way out.
May no one find in His words an occasion for perdition, for every word here was preached and written only for healing and salvation.
“Everyone,” John says, “who commits sin also commits iniquity.” So that you might not think of making a distinction, it is said: “Sin is iniquity” (1 Jn 3:4).
So that you might not say, “I am a sinner, but not lawless,” it is said: “Sin is iniquity.”
“And you know that the Lord appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin” (1 Jn 3:4-5). But what benefit is it to us that He came without sin?
“Everyone who does not sin abides in Him; and everyone who sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Children, let no one deceive you. He who does righteousness is righteous, as He is righteous” (1 Jn 3:6-7).
We have already said that the word “as” may indicate likeness, not equality.
“He who commits sin is of the devil, because the devil sins from the beginning” (1 Jn 3:8). We have also said that the devil created and begot no one, but his imitators are as if born from him.
“For this the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn 3:8). He who has no sin came to destroy sins.
Then follows: “Whoever is born of God does not commit sin, for His seed abides in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” He has bound us tightly.
Perhaps he said, “does not sin,” meaning some definite sin, and not every sin. In that case, when he says, “Whoever is born of God does not sin,” we must understand a definite sin.
It is a sin that a man born of God cannot commit. If anyone commits it, he strengthens the rest; if he does not commit it, he destroys the rest.
What is this sin? To act against the commandment. What is this commandment? “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another” (Jn 13:34).
Attend. This commandment of Christ is called love. By this commandment sins are destroyed. If it is not kept, this is both a grave sin and the root of all sins.
I ask your attention, brothers. We have set before you something that solves the question for those who have understood well. But are we on the way only with the quickest?
Those who walk more slowly must not be left behind. Let us translate this, as best we can, into words that reach everyone.
I think, brothers, that every man who enters the Church not in vain cares for his soul. He does not seek the temporal in the Church.
He enters not to arrange his worldly affairs, but to possess that eternal good promised to him and to attain it. Such a man must certainly consider how he is to pass along the way.
He must not stand still, go backward, wander, or limp, thereby falling into danger of not reaching the goal. Let everyone concerned about this, whether slow or quick, not leave the way.
So then, I told you that John said, “Whoever is born of God does not sin,” while meaning some definite sin. Otherwise this passage would contradict the other words: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
The question can be solved in this way. There is a certain sin that the one born of God cannot commit. If he does not commit it, the other sins are destroyed. If he commits it, the others are confirmed.
What is this sin? To act against the commandment of Christ, against the New Covenant. What is the new commandment? “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another.”
Whoever acts against love, against brotherly mutual affection, must not dare to boast. He must not dare to say that he is born of God.
But if someone is firm in brotherly love, there are sins that he certainly cannot commit, and above all hatred of his brother.
What, then, of the other sins, about which it is said, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us”?
Let him hear a consoling assurance from another place of Scripture: “Love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pet 4:8).
Therefore we call you to love. This Epistle also calls us to love. After the Resurrection the Lord asked Peter nothing but this: “Do you love Me?” (cf. Jn 21:15-17).
It was not enough for Him to ask once. He asked this alone a second time, and this alone a third time.
Although after the third time Peter was grieved that the Lord seemed not to believe him, as though He did not know what was in him, still the Lord asked this the first, second, and third time.
Fear denied three times. Love confessed itself three times.
Behold, Peter loves the Lord. What can he offer as a gift to the Lord? The one who said in the Psalm was troubled by this: “What shall I render to the Lord for all that He has rendered to me?” (Ps 115:3).
The speaker in this Psalm saw how much God had given him. He sought what he could render to God and did not find it.
For whatever you wish to render, you have received from God, and only for that reason can you render it.
What then did he find to render? As I have said, brothers, he found what he had received from Him Himself, in order to render it.
“I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord” (Ps 115:4). Who gave him the cup of salvation, if not the One to whom he wished to render?
To take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord means to be filled with love, and filled so fully that one not only does not hate his brother, but is ready to die for his brother.
Perfect love is to be ready to die for one's brother. The Lord Himself showed this to us when He died for all and prayed for those who crucified Him, saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34).
But if He alone had said this, He would not have been a teacher, for He would have had no disciples. His disciples followed after Him and did the same.
Stephen was being stoned, and bending his knee he said, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:59). He loved those who were stoning him, for he was also dying for them.
Listen also to the Apostle Paul: “I myself will be spent for your souls” (2 Cor 12:15). Not in vain was he among those for whom Stephen prayed when he died at their hands.
Such is perfect love. If someone has such love that he is ready even to die for the brothers, love is perfect in him.
But is it perfect as soon as it is born? It is born in order to be perfected. Once born, it is nourished. Nourished, it is strengthened. When it reaches perfection, what does it say?
“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. I desired to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is necessary for you” (Phil 1:21, 23-24).
He wanted to live for the sake of those for whom he was ready to die.
And so that you may know that perfect love is this, against which the one born of God does not sin, listen to what the Lord says to Peter: “Peter, do you love Me?” He answers, “I love You” (cf. Jn 21:15-17).
The Lord did not say to him, “If you love Me, follow Me.” For when He was in mortal flesh, He hungered and thirsted.
While He hungered and thirsted, hospitality received Him, and those who had possessions ministered to Him from their means, as we read in the Gospel.
Zacchaeus offered Him hospitality and was saved from his sickness because he received the Physician in his house (Lk 19:1-10). From what sickness? From greed.
He was very rich and a chief tax collector. Listen to how he was healed from the sickness of greed: “Half of my possessions,” he said, “I will give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone, I will restore it fourfold” (Lk 19:8).
He kept the other half not in order to use it, but to pay debts from it.
Thus Zacchaeus then offered hospitality to his Healer, because at that time there was the weakness of the flesh in the Lord, and men could offer Him these services.
This was because He wanted to give an opportunity to serve Him to those who rendered Him service. The benefit was for those who served, not for Him.
Did He who was served by angels need human service?
So too once His servant Elijah had no need. A raven brought him bread and meat. Yet so that a pious widow might receive a blessing, the servant of God was sent to her.
The widow fed the one whom the Lord was secretly feeding (1 Kgs 17).
Those who minister to the needs of God's servants do this for their own good, in view of the reward that the Lord most clearly declared in the Gospel.
“He who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward.
And whoever gives one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you, he shall not lose his reward” (Mt 10:41-42).
Although those who act in this way do so for their own good, such service could no longer be rendered to the Lord when He was about to ascend into heaven.
What then could Peter do for Him, since he loved Him? Listen to what: “Feed My sheep” (Jn 21:17).
That is, do for the brothers what I have done for you. I redeemed all by My blood. Do not hesitate to die for the confession of the truth, so that others may imitate you.
But this, as we have said, is perfect love. The one born of God has it.
Be attentive, beloved, and listen to what I say. Behold, a man has been baptized and has received the mystery of the new birth. The mystery is with him, and it is a great mystery, divine, holy, and ineffable.
THEOSIS